23/11/2009

My new iPhone finally arrived today, so I've signed up for a couple of new "social" things - specifically Gowalla and Foursquare (which is not much use yet, given that Adelaide is not yet included), but we'll play along for the time being ...

22/11/2009

Chuq von Rospach on planning "what he wants to be when he grows up" ... one point he makes is that if you're serious about making a living with the Internet, you should probably have more control over your web presence. This series will be worth watching ...

Sean argues coherently (again) that breaking up the banks is one way of preventing the next GFC, freeing up innovation and creating more value:

we know that the market for oil products didn’t suffer as a result of the break-up of Standard Oil, nor did anarchy descend on the US telecommunications markets following the break-up of AT&T. I think you’ll actually find that there is a decent case to be made that things got better in both cases, with more robust and innovative markets and better value for customers.

But the most important long-term reason to consider government intervention in the size and power of the world’s largest financial institutions is that failing to do so will inevitably starve one of the key sectors of the economy of innovation and progress with increasingly damaging results.

20/11/2009

The power of storytelling - one person's experience with a service organisation with a toxic culture:

I told him not to change the performance review system, the rewards packages, the training programs. Don't change anything. Not yet anyway. For now, just change the stories. For a while there will be a disconnect between the new stories and the entrenched systems promoting the old culture. And that disconnect will create tension. Tension that can be harnessed to create mechanisms to support the new stories.

To start a culture change all we need to do is two simple things:

Do dramatic story-worthy things that represent the culture we want to create. Then let other people tell stories about it.

Find other people who do story-worthy things that represent the culture we want to create. Then tell stories about them.

Obligatory Disclaimer

The opinions expressed on these pages are mine, all mine. They may not reflect what my boss, wife, kids or dog think, so don't blame THEM. Any correlation between events on this blog and anything approaching reality will be entirely coincidental, unintended, serendipitous and transitory.